Tears and Promises
by laurzz
Summary: NathanHaley. A post-ep oneshot story for episode 7x16 - “My Attendance is Bad But My Intentions Are Good”.


**A/N: So, this is my second OTH (more specifically Nathan and Haley) story; so I hope I'm not stepping on any toes here :) - This is a post ep oneshot, based around last night's episode; "My Attendance is Bad But My Intentions Are Good". Lydia's storyline really hits home to me, as I lost someone from cancer this summer so I particularly wanted to write a oneshot for this episode.**

**A huge, huge thank you to Megan and all her support she's given me with this episode. *tackles* **

**This is just a missing scene as such from the episode. Hope you all like it, and any feedback is very much appreciated. **

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_Tell me where does it hurt, where is the pain? _

_You know if I could, I'd make it go away._

_Can I make it better?_

_Where does it hurt?_

_- Where Does It Hurt? The Warren Brothers._

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"Hales?" Nathan called throughout their house, smiling as he watched Jamie take off upstairs with the video camera Julian had given him clutched in his hand. Realising he'd not received an answer; he called out again, "Haley?"

Instead of a reply he heard a sort of muffled sob, coming from somewhere downstairs. Deciding to investigate, he headed off in search of his wife; thinking of all the horrible things Taylor had probably done to make his wife cry.

Walking into the living room, Nathan's eyebrow rose at the sight of the vast amount of pictures that lay scattered over the coffee table and on the arm of the chairs. His eyes fell on his wife, who had squeezed herself into a tight ball, clutching a pillow. Judging from her tear tracks, she'd been crying for a significant amount of time.

Which didn't sit right with him. Taylor stealing the last ice cube from the tray, or using the last of Haley's lotion couldn't be that bad.

"Baby?" he said tentatively as he cautiously made his way toward her. "Baby what's wrong?"

Haley looked up at her husband through her tear filled eyes and let out a sob as she did so. "Nathan..."

"Haley, what's wrong?" he inquired; worried about his wife's current state.

"It's... It's..." She whimpered as her head fell to his shoulder and she shifted in her position so that she was buried into his side. "Oh, Nathan."

"Baby, what? What's going on?"

"My mom... My... She..."

"Take it easy, alright?" He reminded her as he carefully extracted the photograph she was clutching tightly in her hand, placing it to one side so that he could focus on Haley. "Take a deep breath, k?" Haley spluttered and sniffled as she tried to draw in a breath. Nathan himself took a breath, preparing himself for whatever his wife was about to tell him. "Try again, Hales." He said encouragingly.

"My mom... She's... She's got cancer Nathan."

Tears instantly sparked in his eyes. While Nathan wasn't a crier, and cried only when something had happened to either Haley or his son, Lydia James was someone he cared a lot about. And the feeling of his stomach dropping when he heard the word 'cancer' being whispered from his wife's lips was one he had never experienced before.

That and whenever his wife cried, his heart broke a little.

Instantly, his protective and optimistic side kicked in, desperate to make Haley see that things could turn out alright. "Haley, baby... There's ways that..."

"She's not going to get better," she interrupted him, knowing that he was going to offer some form of reassurance in that more and more people survive it. "It's pancreatic. She... She doesn't want to..."

Nathan brought Haley's head to his chest and pressed a kiss to the top of her head, silently telling her that she didn't have to finish what she was saying.

"Is that why she came? To tell you guys?"

Haley nodded as her tears soaked a patch on Nathan's shirt. "What am I going to do, Nathan?"

He knew that she wanted a solution. A way to fix her heartbreak. A way to fix her sisters' heartbreak. But Nathan had nothing.

He was lucky, if you could call it that, to have never lost a parent before. His father; who probably in the grand scheme of things didn't really belong here, was still gracing the earth with his presense and constant bullshit, and his mother, while she had her heart in the right place, had never really been anything similar to Lydia and her motherly instincts. He knew it was horrible, but it was true.

And now, here his wife was losing her mom after she lost her dad only years previous. A dad that had worshipped his daughters; and sons for that matter. Nathan hadn't really known what to say back then; mainly offering her comfort in the physical form, like holding her when she cried, and wiping her tears away. It had been Lydia that had given her the reassurances that he hadn't suffered and he was fine – just biding his time till they joined him.... and was probably terrorising Keith with his antics.

Now though, Lydia James couldn't offer that same reassurance to her daughter.

Haley's chest contracting brought him from his thoughts and he wrapped his arms tighter around her slender frame. "Hales..."

"I don't know what I'm going to do Nathan. I can't do... I can't..."

"Haley, you know you can. You can do anything when you set your mind to it."

"No I can't," she wailed. "Not without my Mom. When things go wrong, I call my Mom and she makes it better."

"I know baby... I know that, but..."

"She's supposed to be there when Jamie graduates. She's supposed to be there when I have our next baby. She's supposed to be there, Nathan."

"She will be there baby. She'll always be with you. You know that."

"I mean here, here. Not in my heart or any of that... she'll be gone. And she's never going to be able to give me the help that I need. She's not going to be at the end of a phone line."

Nathan trailed his fingers up and down Haley's arm. "Baby..."

"She promised that she'd be here for me no matter what after Daddy died." Haley whispered. "She promised that she'd never leave. That when she went, I'd be a grown woman with grandchildren on the way and..." Haley reduced into floods of tears as she buried her head into the crook of Nathan's neck. "She promised I'd know what to do without her."

He pressed a kiss to the top of her head and squeezed her affectionately. "We'll adjust."

"We shouldn't have to!" Haley sobbed. "She should be here with me! With Quinn and with Taylor. We need her."

"Obviously your Dad needs her too. She'll be with him Hales, he'll make sure that she's safe and that she doesn't suffer. You know he will."

"Why Nathan? Why would he do that when I need her here?"

He, as well as Haley knew that she wasn't being her rational self. The news however, had come as such a shock that she didn't know who to direct her anger toward. Anger in that her Mom was being taken away, way before her time, so close after losing her Dad.

"It isn't fair," she whispered. "Why my parents? Why do I have to lose both my Mom and Dad?"

"It sucks," Nathan agreed. "But you've had so many amazing years with them, Hales. Look at these pictures," he said, gesturing down to the array of photographs laid in front of them. "Look how many amazing memories you have with them. Nothing will take that away from you."

Haley sniffled. "I just can't believe she won't be here."

"People lose their Mom's a lot younger, Haley... Look at Peyton."

"I know... I know, and I... I feel horrible for thinking that I'm the only one that's lost her Mom before, but Nathan... she's my Mom."

"I know honey, but you've had so many amazing things. She saw you get married. Her and your Dad were the only people to see us get married the first time. That is something that no one else has. Not one of our friends, no other family members... no one. She and your Dad were there, and you can remember that memory of them forever."

"I'm just scared I'm going to miss her." Haley whispered. "I mean, I miss my Dad, but my Mom keeps him alive. But with her gone..."

Nathan took a deep breath as he prepared himself for repeating the same words he'd said to his son earlier in the day; "If miss someone you're lucky, because it means you had someone special in your life. Someone worth missing."

Haley sniffed. "I'm not fan on the missing part."

Nathan fought the smile that graced his lips. His wife and his son were more similar than what he realised sometimes.

"I don't think anyone is often a fan of missing someone, Hales... But lots of people have to go through it. Just remember all the amazing things you've experienced with your Mom and it will ease the pain."

Haley shrugged tearfully.

Nathan hung his head. He knew what he was saying wasn't helping; he just desperately wanted to say something... anything to make her feel even a little better. But nothing... no words could make up for what his wife was going through. Nothing he could say would make her feel better. No words would stop her Mom from dying.

A fresh bout of tears hit Haley, "Jamie!"

"Jamie?" Nathan asked, looking up from where he had been gazing down at his wife.

"Jamie's going to... Nathan, Jamie is going to be devastated."

Nathan sighed, his heart aching for his little boy, adding another person to his 'I miss' list. "Well, how about for now you and I deal with it, and we can tell Jamie later on. We need to make sure you're okay about it all first."

"But he needs to know, he'll be wondering why I'm..."

"Hales... Let me worry about that, alright?" Nathan sighed, his wife's worry weighing heavily on his heart. He swallowed down the conversation he'd had with Jamie not an hour previous, about him missing people; for such a little boy, he had seen so many people come and go from his life. Nathan cleared his throat, desperate to rid his tears threatening to fall. "For now, focus on you."

Wiping her tears Haley straightened up and sniffled. "I need to be strong for my Mom, and Quinny and Tay..."

"Why?" Nathan implored. "Haley, if you want to sit and cry, you sit and cry. I'll be here to hold you, you know that. I'll always be here for you whenever you need someone to wipe your tears."

"But..."

"There is no but," Nathan told her. "I'm here. Always have been, always will be."

She sniffled. "It's going to be really hard without her around."

"It will be," he nodded in agreement. "But you and I have this thing called forever and always, no?"

Despite the tears rolling down her face, Haley smiled. "You even got the 'you and I' right."

Nathan smiled and pressed a kiss to her temple. "Forever and Always, Haley. No matter what, I'm here for you... It's going to be tough and I know you're going to be hurting. And I may not have the most sophisticated, comforting things to say, but I love you, and I'll always be there to wipe the tears... Remember that for me, k?"

She nodded as tears filled her eyes. "I said this to my Mom earlier, but I'm really lucky to have you, Nathan."

Nathan smiled and pressed a kiss to her temple. "It's going to be okay, Hales. I promise."

"You can't promise me that," she whispered.

"No, but I can." A voice made itself known in the doorway.

Both Haley and Nathan looked up to see Lydia stood with her arms folded over her chest.

Nathan bit his lip as he fought the tears. He extracted himself from the hold he had on his wife, and stood up; making his way over to Lydia. He licked his lips for a moment before pulling his mother in law into a warm, comforting hug.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

"Don't be," she smiled as she patted his back and slowly stepped back from him.

"If you need anything from me..."

"All that I need you to do is to look after her for me," Lydia said with a smile, pointing to her daughter. "While she's her sister's keeper..."

"Sometimes she needs someone to just look out for her." Nathan finished.

Lydia smiled as she held her hands out, cupping Nathan's cheeks. "You'll always be the boy that climbed through her window... Her Romeo... Keep her safe, and keep her smiling for me?"

Despite trying to stay strong for Haley, Nathan let a tear slip down his cheek. "I promise."

"Knowing she's got you, makes this easier," she finished. "So thank you."

Nathan nodded, for if he was to do anything else, his tears would release themselves.

"Can I steal her for a little while?"

Nathan glanced to Haley who was now shuffling papers around the room. "Absolutely, I'll go...I'll... go find something to do." Nathan turned on his heel, heading out of the room. Once out of sight he stopped and braced himself against the wall, letting himself slide down, mirroring his tears.

And, as he listened to Haley and her Mom battle their (more specifically, Haley's) emotions; Nathan dealt with his own emotions. He swiped away his stray tears and took a deep breath. This stretch in front of them was going to be one hell of a hard one, and Haley was really going to need him. Now, when her Mom was still here; and even more so after she had passed.

He closed his eyes as he listened to his wife sob that she 'didn't want to be strong for this', trying to think of anything other than how his heart was breaking for her.

He took one more deep breath before pushing up off the wall and wiping his eyes as he stood.

He was Nathan, and she was Haley. And together they had managed to get through everything that they had been faced with. This was just one thing that they had to face. And as much as it would hurt, and as many tears that would be shed, they'd manage it, because they'd do it together. Just like they always did.

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**Thanks for reading.**


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